Not too long ago I took out this book from the local library to read it with Ym. I was surprised by how profound and emotional the book is. Then, I read a couple of reviews and realized that some people consider this book not appropriate for young children. In spite of all, I liked it. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to discuss deeper topics with Ym.

The boys made these artworks for the children of San Jorge’s Hospital. We were supposed to take it on Valentine’s Day but some of us have been sick around here. So, we won’t be able to make the trip. Any how, we did enjoy making the craft together.

Besides Language and Math, these are the other activities Ym has been working on. Science is still his favorite one as long as he learns from the “real thing” and does lots of experiments. He’s still not into nomenclature cards. He also spends much of his time doing artsy projects in which he gets to choose the materials and use his creativity.

Ciencia / Science

Aprendiendo un poco sobre las semillas. Learning about the seeds.

Removiendo semillas de una manzana. Pudo ver que las semillas estaban dentro de la manzana. Removing the seeds from an apple. He learned that the seeds were inside the apple.

La colección de hojas que recojimos en una caminata. Mi favorita es la última a la derecha. No sé si la puedan ver. Ésta ya se estaba descomponiendo y me sirvió para presentar las venas de la hoja. Leaves we collected during a nature walk. My favorite one is the last one on the right end. The one you can hardly see because it was decomposing already. It helped me show the leaf veins to the boys.

Ya habíamos mezclado colores AQUÍ y AQUÍ pero ahora fue que realmente entendió cuales son colores secundarios y como obtenerlos. We had done this activity before HERE and HERE . But it wasn’t until now that he really learned about the secondary colors and how to obtain them.

Investigando cuales objetos son magnéticos y cuales no. Los rótulos los pueden encontrar AQUÍ. Por si no lo saben, Montessori For Everyone tiene otros materiales para imprimir gratis. Gracias Lori.Finding out which objects are magnetic and which aren’t. I used the title cards from HERE. In case you don’t know, Montessori for Everyone has more free printables . Thanks Lori.

Aprendiendo sobre el Esqueleto con su hermano. Learning about the Skeleton along with his brother.

Armando un rompecabezas del Sistema Digestivo. Working on the Digestive System puzzle.

Pintando su nombre y los nombres de los miembros de la familia. Painting the names of the family members.

Musica / Music

Practicando su violín en casa. Nos está funcionando hacerlo después del desayuno. Para lograrlo tuvimos que hacer ajustes en nuestro rítmo diario. Playing violin at home. Scheduling his practice right after breakfast is really working for us. We had to make a few adjustments to our daily rhythm to get there.

Usar el sistema de sellitos también lo ha motivado mucho. Imprimí la página de colorear de AQUÍ. Y Ym mismo le pega estrellitas cuando practica. La regla es que no se puede pedir juguete ni cualquier otra cosa que tenga que comprar como premio. We’ve had an extra help from our friends “the stickers”. I just printed the coloring page I found HERE and have him put the stickers himself after practice. The only rule is not to ask for toys or anything that I would have to buy as his reward.

To a visual person like me there’s nothing better than putting together homeschooling pictures. It gives me a view of what is happening ---a map---.

This collection of photos shows Ym’s school work and progress. In general terms, I’ve noticed his concentration and interest have greatly improved. He is finally showing interest in Language and Math. I’ll talk about the rest of the subjects in my next post. I don’t want to make this one too long.

Veo-veo / I Spy --- No tengo fotos pero este es un juego que ha ayudado mucho a Ym. Hemos repasado el sonido inicial y también comenzado a aprender sobre el sonido final. A veces usamos objetos para jugarlo. I don’t have any pictures to share but this is a game that has helped Ym a lot. We have reinforced initial sounds and have begun to learn about final sounds. Sometimes we use objects to play the game.

Jugando Dominos…como los viejitos. Yn le enseño a jugar y Ym ganó el primer y segundo juego. Suerte de principiante! Playing dominoes… like a little old man. Yn taught his little brother to play. So, little brother learned his lesson so well that he won his first AND second game. Beginner’s luck, I guess!

Haciendo la escalera (o triangulo) con las barras de cuentas de colores. Building a triangle with the short bead stair.

Adding and Substracting up to 10 --- We’ve been doing this in a casual way with everyday objects. For example, if he has 5 chocolates I remove one and ask him how many are left. And, if he has 4 crayons I hand him 4 more and ask how many are there together.